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For those of you who do not know....our former medic Steve Oliphant lives in the Phillipines. He attended a reunion at Fort Benning several years ago just pryer to leaving the US for a new life in the Phillipines. 2 days ago he posted on Facebook that the winds were worsening and they were prepared for the storm. He asked for prayers.

I looked up his address in the member directory and see that he was south of where the storm made landfall...so he was fortunate to avoid the area of the worst devastation. He is also well inland...near the center of the island where he lives...and at an elevation that would preclude effects of any storm surge associated with the typhoon. Still, this was a terrible storm, and I am sure there was considerable storm damage in his area. It is likely he is without power since there has been no "followup" post on Facebook.

For those of you who have the Google Earth AP....Steve lives in Bayugan, Philippines. The storm made landfall near San Pedro Bay, about 260 miles north of Steve...so hopes are that he is "OK". I will post an update when we hear from Steve.

My cuz and her husband do mission work in the Phillippines and she posted FB before and after. They were thankfully relatively unscathed where they were staying as the storm split around both sides of their location. They were in Bacolod which I have no idea where that's at. Here is her FB quote about the ones who did not survive, " Most died in Tacloban City on the Island of Leyte." I think I heard newscasts say they are due to be hit with another storm in the next couple days, so not good news there. Hope Steve is OK.

Steve posted on Facebook tonight:

Storm is gone, did not come through Cebu as much as we feared it would. Got blown pretty good for a few hours, but nothing like north of here as the storm turned a bit north from here. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts.